Visa / Iqama and MBA
 

Hello All

Arrived in Riyadh and first impressions much better than anticipated :cool:

Met with local HR and when talking about visa/residency, they wanted to know what title is on my bachelor degree. I don't have one, but I do have an MBA. They've not come across this before and are going to do some checks, but interested in the groups experiences on this.

1. Title like engineer seemed to be important (even though my role is sales management). Is not have having a BSc/Ba degree likely to cause visa/iqama problems for my company :confused: I'm hoping not as an MBA is afterall a post-grad degree ;)

2. From reading various forum posts, what is the most senior type of visa status that I could get? The company will also need to apply for my family and do this as fairly standard practice for others moving out here.

3. Once my visa/iqama is issued, how long doesit normally take to get the family visa issued? I've been quoted 8 weeks as fairly typically after mine.

Thanks
Mike

Re: Visa / Iqama and MBA
 

You don't have to have a degree of any sort to get an Iqama and be able to sponsor your family, it just makes things a little more difficult, your HR people will be able to find out for you. It took about 6 months from start to finish for my company to arrange iqamas for me and family so you should be prepared for a (possibly) long wait.

Re: Visa / Iqama and MBA
 

Gulp. A lot longer than I would like :(
Thanks Mike

Re: Visa / Iqama and MBA
 

Prepare to be called an engineer of some description. A company I used to work for in Riyadh employed a librarian to look after our extensive library of technical documentation (this was in prehistoric times), and his iguana described him as a Book Engineer.

Re: Visa / Iqama and MBA
 

Welcome to a cold and wet Riyadh:(

THe Iqama shoudl only take around ten days to come through, most Expats need to have a second medical once they arrive here, then it should be done fairly quickly.

The Iqama will state your job type, and this is reflected by the visa, so there isn't really a senior type of visa as such. Most companies will inform the Monistry of Interior of the type of job you have been appointed to and at times, they will get the easiest type of visa that canbe issued, so engineer can be common description of the types of visa's that will be issued. We have several staff that are employed as 'English Language Teachers' when they are in effect senior project managers.

Once you have the Iqama, providing everything is straightforward with the family info ( marriage certificates, birth certs etc all available ) then it can be a couple of months before the famly can be brought out.

In reality, most expats tend to take their first trip back home after around three / four months, by which time, the visa for the family should be ready, and then usual common practice is to fly home for the first vacation and bring the family with you when you fly back.